Another year has passed and another Thanksgiving Turkey is upon us. Every year I typically try something a little different with the thanksgiving turkey. This year I am preparing a Brined and Buttered Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey, smothered with a mixture of fresh herbs, pepper, and BUTTER! Keeping it simple, but super tender and moist, with a ton of fresh flavor from a lot of chopped herbs. This might be my favorite Thanksgiving Turkey I have ever made. I invite you to give it a try for your family and friends…. I think you will end up looking like a hero!

My philosophy with turkey and chicken is keep it simple. Let the bird do the talking with a nice accent of flavor added from a brine, flavorful rub, or a combination of both. The 4 ingredient brine from this recipe gives it a nice light saltiness throughout the turkey meat and the herby butter provides a brightness to the meat with out over powering it. I look forward to making this again on Thanksgiving Day!

I used my Big Green Egg to smoke the turkey. You can use what ever smoker or grill you have available. You can also use an oven if needed. The most important thing is keeping the temperature at 325 F, nice and steady. If you are looking to buy an entry level smoker, the best value grill/smoker out there might be the Weber Kettle Premium 22″. It is a grill first, but can perform great as a smoker. I love it for chicken or turkey. If you are going to use a Weber Kettle, you may want to check out my post on smoking a chicken on a webber kettle. Go with all lump charcoal to give the turkey a kiss of smoke, rather than drowning the bird with smoke. My favorite lump charcoal is Fogo Premium Hardwood Charcoal. Big pieces that last a long time.

Brine Ingredients

20 Cups Warm Water

4 -6 Cups Ice (add after mixing other ingredients together)

1/2 Cup Sea Salt

1/2 Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

1.5 Cups Brown Sugar

Buttery Herby Rub Ingredients

1.5 sticks of butter – unsalted

1/4 Cup of Freshly shopped herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme is what I used)

Turkey Brining and Smoking Process

Pick out a nice turkey. I like the average 12-14 lb birds. They cook up fast and are easy to handle. If you have a real crowd… buy two!

Let it thaw out in the fridge. This will take 3 days or so.

Brine the turkey overnight. I use my largest pasta pot and my beer fridge to store the turkey overnight. If needed, use a food safe brining bag and a cooler full of ice around the bag to keep it cool overnight.

Mix the warm water and dry ingredients together, then add the salt to cool the brine before adding the turkey

Start your smoker and heat it to 325 F. I am only using lump charcoal to smoke this Thanksgiving Turkey for a light smoke flavor. If you like, add a small amount of apple or cherry when starting the cook.

Mix up the butter, herb, pepper mix. Heat the butter up if needed to make it easier to mix, but you want it thick and sticky.

Quickly rinse your turkey with cold water and then dry your Turkey. Apply the butter mix all over the outside and inside of the turkey. Use your hands to pry the skin away from the breasts and then apply the butter between the meat and the skin. I used the entire stick and a half of butter… I don’t think you can over do it.

Sprinkle the exterior with salt and pepper

Smoke the turkey until breast temperature is at 160 F and the thigh is above 165 F. Let it rest for 15 minutes and carve that turkey up! For a 12 lb bird, I have found the smoking process to take about 120-140 minutes at 325. If you vary the temperature, cooking time will change. Trust a good meat thermometer to tell you when to pull the bird.

Brined turkey, rubbed inside and out with the herby butter mix.

Smoked turkey on my big green egg. This is at the half way point, one hour into the smoke.

Can you believe it? Thanksgiving is almost here? Do you look forward to the big day? I definitely look forward to hanging out with some family, overeating, and throwing back some beers on a Thursday afternoon. The only thing that stresses me out about thanksgiving is planning the meal with family. Some people want this, some people want that, and others could not care less. If you happen to draw the Thanksgiving Turkey card this year, I think this recipe will do you proud, and it could not be easier. This 12 pound turkey was marinated in a salty herby dry rub overnight, then injected with a butter solution the day of smoking, and then got smoked over apple wood in a Big Green Egg at 325 degrees for 2 hours 20 minutes. What I like about this recipe is the simplicity and the results. There was no liquid brining necessary or basting during the cook and it came out juicy, full of flavor. The turkey had just the right amount of salt to it and the herbs did shine through on the breast meat. I have been eating the leftovers for 3 days now, and I am still not sick of it!

First, pick out a nice size Turkey. Our family is not huge, so I am going with a 12 lb bird. I try to be reasonable with my meat selections in regard to organic and grass fed… choosing something in the middle hoping the animal was treated well, but does not cost twice as much as the generic bottom of the barrel. This is the bird I chose…

I have used Honeysuckle turkey products before and they have always turned out well, so this is what I went with. After rinsing and drying the bird, I used 4 Tablespoons of Herb Lov’n Rub to thoroughly rub the entire exterior of the bird, the inside of the cavity, and under the skin of the breasts. That’s right, I rubbed the hell out of those breasts. I’m not even ashamed.

For more info on seasoning and injecting a bird, check out this video I made on smoking a chicken. We are doing the exact same thing, except we are injecting the bird a day later, before we smoke it. After seasoning, place the bird in a pan and cover loosely with foil.

After marinating overnight, we are ready to smoke. Before starting the smoker, I pulled the bird out of the fridge and injected it with a mixture of melted butter, light olive oil, and apple cider vinegar. This process is also covered in the video above. You want to inject several tablespoons into each breast and then use the leftover solution in the leg and thigh area. This is the extent of our Turkey preparation. No stuffing at all. If you put stuffing in there, it is just going to dry out the bird as you have to overcook the bird to cook the stuffing. If you want to throw some lemons in there or apples, feel free, but I do not find it necessary.

After injecting, start the smoker and heat up to 325 F. I used a big green egg for this smoke and my setup is always the same for most smoke sessions. Heat deflector wrapped in foil below the meat. The meat then placed on a rack several inches above the heat deflector. You can buy the setup below online at the ceramic grill store. I like this setup because you can pick up the grill grate and heat deflector at once when you need to check the fire. I switched to this 3 years ago and have not looked back.

I only used one chunk of apple wood over lump charcoal as I do not like an over smoked bird with gravy. I prefer a light smoke flavor for Thanksgiving. Below are shots of the Turkey during the cooking process. I was pleasantly surprised that the breast meat and the thigh meat cooked pretty evenly and I pulled the Turkey at 165 F. The thigh meat was only one degree higher than the breast at that time. One thing that I think actually helps this is not tieing up the legs before cooking. I never do this and have never had an issue with any meat drying out.

I then let the Turkey rest in a preheated oven as I prepare the sides. I do this to buy myself some time. The trick is to heat the oven to 170 F (my lowest setting) and the turn the oven off before placing the turkey inside. This gives you plenty of time for final gravy and mashed potato preparation. Let the turkey rest for at least 30 – 60 minutes and you are ready to carve it up! If you give this recipe a shot, be sure to leave me a message or hit me up on facebook. I would love to hear how things turned out for you. Thanks for stopping by – Keegan

Thanksgiving Turkey

This smoked Thanksgiving Turkey will impress all the guests around your table. Marinated with a salty herb dry rub and injected with melted butter, it is so tender and delicious.

Course
Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine
American, BBQ

Prep Time18hours

Cook Time2hours20minutes

Total Time20hours20minutes

Servings8

AuthorKeegan

Ingredients

12-14lbsWhole Turkey

Herb Lov'n Dry Rub

1TablespoonSeasoned Salt

1TablespoonKosher Salt

1TablespoonGround pepper

1TablespoonRosemary

1TablespoonThyme

1TablespoonOregano

1/2Tablespoongarlic powder

Injection Mixture

5TablespoonsButter

3TablespoonsLight Olive Oilor other light vegetable oil

3TablespoonsApple Cider Vinegar

Instructions

Mix Herb Lov'n Rub several days before you smoke the turkey.

The day before: Clean Turkey, removing any giblets, etc. Rinse inside and out and dry the entire bird.

Apply the rub all over the exterior of the bird and the inside of the cavity.

Lift up the skin over the breasts and put a spoon full of rub under the skin. Move the rub around with your fingers under the skin, trying to apply evenly.

Cover the turkey in a pan with foil loosely and place in refrigerator overnight.

The day of smoking the turkey - remove bird from fridge and inject with melted butter solution. Inject breasts first and then anything leftover into thighs and legs. Try not to puncture too many wholes in the skin - use the same puncture when possible for repeat injections.

Heat smoker to 325 F for indirect cooking

Place one chunk of apple wood on smoker and then place bird on smoker

Cook for 1.75 hours and then monitor internal temperature. I have found the thighs are usually 165 F when the breasts are 160 F. Remove the turkey when the thigh and breast meat are each over 160 F.

Rest at least 30 minutes, covered in foil. Carve and serve!

Recipe Notes

Expect cooking time to vary with size of bird and smoker setup. Monitor internal temperature as you cook the turkey to adjust the time needed.